It was not so long ago that naturalists were predicting that the Water Vole would be extinct in the United Kingdom within a few years. Predation by the North American Mink, loss of habitat and pollution seemed to be the main culprits.
The much loved small mammal, immortalized in fiction as Ratty (
left) in Kenneth Grahame’s
Wind in the Willows, seemed destined for the history books. It was given protected status as late as 2008 - a legislative moved considered by many to be too little too late.
Yet just a few years after their dire predictions it seems that the water vole is back from the brink, testimony to the help it has received from conservationists.
Thriving colonies of over two thousand now exist in several places in the UK. Less than ten years ago, surveys of the same places revealed only a scattering of water voles, less than twenty in each location. If those numbers have made you raise an eyebrow you may not know just how fecund a water vole can be. Left to her own devices a female can produce up to
thirty young in a season with up to eight baby voles per litter. So, what did the environmentalists do to aid such a dramatic come back for this semi-aquatic rodent?
